Mid-course feedback from an experienced student

In the middle of the Fall, 2005 term, Dr. Prabhakar Ragde handed out
feedback forms to the students in his HtDP-based CS1 course. One wrote:

So far, I've found the course to be as described in the outlines: it is
a course for those with no experience and those who do at the same time.
As an experienced programmer (OOP with C++ & PHP), I've found this
course requires a considerable amount of analysis of functions at a more
fundamental level than the two preceding languages, and, consequently,
has provided me with some insight as to 'why' and 'how' functions in
more common languages work the way they do. Prior to this course, many
things I took for granted concerning programming; that is no longer the
case.

In response to a question about what advice the students would offer
someone considering taking this course:

I would suggest that [this course] places emphasis on the logic behind
programming rather than the idea of programming in general, and,
particularly if he/she is majoring in CS, that the knowledge gained in
[this course] is more helpful in the long run for future CS courses than
[the first-term Java courses]. In fact, many students capable of
attempting [the second-term CS 2 in Java course] ought to take [this
course] instead for those very reasons; they may be able to program
Java, but they may not fully grasp what is happening at a much simpler
level within the language, which I believe [this course] helps students
do.